Florence-Lauderdale Public Library
Interview with Leroy Makinson
June 8, 2011
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Clint Alley and Rhonda Haygood
Clip 2
Leroy Makinson: I had a brother that was, ah, that went in the Army and he was a radio intercept operator that did Morse code all day long, and they transferred him to the Philippines and when the war started they put him up on the front lines intercepting the enemy codes, Chinese and North Korean, and then they would—he would type it and it would go through a machine and they broke the code, so we’d know exactly what they were doing, so, and he did that for a year on the front lines.
Clint Alley: That’s amazing.
LM: And my brother, like myself, we, we both ended up getting a schooling out of that service.
CA: Okay.
LM: We both spent that four years. He dropped out of high school and he ended up an electrical engineer and a missile analyst for the Navy for many years. Strangely enough he’s, he’s 81 years old and he’s getting a paper published this month in an international magazine on gravity―
CA: Wow. That’s amazing.
LM: ―he hopes is a new theory on gravity.
CA: That’s amazing. So, you were, ah, you served until 1952 in the Air Force?
LM: Right. Forty-seven months altogether.
CA: Okay. Okay. Forty-seven months. And then did you go back to Iowa after that?
LM: Ah, I had married about six months before I got out of service and the woman I married was studying to be a nurse and we were living in—and she was living in Minneapolis, going to school. So, I went there and, ah about the time I got out of service she graduated and so, we lived there several months and then, after they passed the GI Bill, because of the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition, I was able to go to, move back to Iowa and then go to school there.
CA: Okay.
LM: And, ah, it was much cheaper.
CA: Yeah.
LM: I think I got through four years of college—and I was looking this up the other day—and I don’t believe that I spent over six or seven thousand dollars for four years of education.
CA: That’s very rare.
LM: You know from―because tuition was like fifty dollars a quarter and then you had to buy the books, so it was very inexpensive in those days. And at that time the school I went to there was 9,000 students and today there’s about 35,000.
CA: Wow. What school was it?
LM: Iowa State University.
CA: Iowa State. Okay.
LM: It was like Auburn; it was a, a land grant college.
CA: Um-hm.
LM: Engineering and agriculture and so forth, you know.
CA: Yeah.
LM: Veterinary.
CA: Wow. So you, ah, you married before you were out of the service and then you—
LM: About six months.
CA: About six months.
LM: Yeah.
CA: Okay.
LM: Um-hm.
CA: Okay.
Rhonda Haygood: What was your, what was the hardest part of being in the service at that time?
LM: From my point of view, I can’t really say that there was a hard part because I wasn’t under any, ah, stress as far as being in the front— on the front or anything like that. I really can’t say if there was a hard part, ah, we were young and it, it, once I went to Bermuda there was a lot of things to do there, because it was a tourist place and um, I, I just can’t say that there was a hard part.
RH: Well, that’s good.
CA: Yeah, it is, yeah, yeah.
LM: I was doing okay.
CA: Did you have a, a, an opinion about Harry Truman? I know we mentioned he was president at this time.
LM: No, but I’ve got a great respect for that man and, ah, he knew what it was all about, because he’d been an artillery officer in World War I, and so he, ah, the decisions that he made after Roosevelt died and for his respect for the atomic bomb and so forth, I think they were, he made the right kinds of decisions.
CA: Um-hm.
LM: He could identify with those days.
CA: Um-hm.
LM: And from World War I, you know.
CA: Yeah. Yeah.
LM: As I was looking through some of this material, this folder I usually take to my, with me when I go to the schools. [Mr. Makinson is referring to a folder containing pictures and documents he takes with him when he goes to talk with student about the Korean War]. I saw one in here. I, I’ve got this photo here of a bunch of women and, and I guess these are all nurses. They’re really good-looking girls aren’t they? But, ah, a interesting story behind that. That, that, they’re standing in front of the hospital where I was born and one of those nurses there, in the, in the front row is, was my great-aunt, my mother’s sister, or, my mother’s aunt. And, ah, at that hospital was also the chief surg—my mo—my great aunt was the chief surgical nurse and the, and the chief surgeon was a man who had been in the Spanish-American War in the Philippines and he’d been a surgeon there and he recognized the need for front line medical service, you know. And so, ah, what happened was that when World War I started he decided that he would put together a unit and they would go to France and be the medical service for, for the American Army. And so, they formed what they call Mobile Hospital No. 1, which became the first MASH unit, like they had in World War II and in World War I, there were twenty-two women that received the French Croix de guerre, medal of bravery and honor and there was five of them from this unit right here and one of them was my great-aunt, I think that’s her right there [Mr. Makinson indicates a woman in the photo]. She was still a spinster and she was probably forty years old at the time, because she lived to be ninety-three, but, ah, they were awarded the Croix de guerre, one of the twenty-two women of all nations that were given it in World War I, and in her letters that I have she talks about that they had treated 26,000 wounded in one hospital in six weeks.
CA: My goodness.
LM: And described the horrors of the First World War, you know, before we had antibiotics and things like that.
CA: Um-hm.
LM: And, ah, and they called it Unit K and they became Mobile Hospital No. 1 and that’s interesting because the man that gave her the, the medal was a guy by the name of Marshall Pétain. If you know anything about World War I, Marshall Pétain was the, was the head man at the end of the war, was a Marshall of France, over all the generals and he gave that to, that medal to my, ah, my great aunt. But during World War II, Marshall Pétain was still around and when the Nazis took over France in World War II, he became their quisling or their man that they dealt with and he in, in effect was helping the Nazis run France at the World, in World War II.
CA: Wow. My goodness.
LM: So, ―
CA: That’s a really neat story. I’m glad that you have that picture.

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Transcriptions

Florence-Lauderdale Public Library
Interview with Leroy Makinson
June 8, 2011
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Clint Alley and Rhonda Haygood
Clip 2
Leroy Makinson: I had a brother that was, ah, that went in the Army and he was a radio intercept operator that did Morse code all day long, and they transferred him to the Philippines and when the war started they put him up on the front lines intercepting the enemy codes, Chinese and North Korean, and then they would—he would type it and it would go through a machine and they broke the code, so we’d know exactly what they were doing, so, and he did that for a year on the front lines.
Clint Alley: That’s amazing.
LM: And my brother, like myself, we, we both ended up getting a schooling out of that service.
CA: Okay.
LM: We both spent that four years. He dropped out of high school and he ended up an electrical engineer and a missile analyst for the Navy for many years. Strangely enough he’s, he’s 81 years old and he’s getting a paper published this month in an international magazine on gravity―
CA: Wow. That’s amazing.
LM: ―he hopes is a new theory on gravity.
CA: That’s amazing. So, you were, ah, you served until 1952 in the Air Force?
LM: Right. Forty-seven months altogether.
CA: Okay. Okay. Forty-seven months. And then did you go back to Iowa after that?
LM: Ah, I had married about six months before I got out of service and the woman I married was studying to be a nurse and we were living in—and she was living in Minneapolis, going to school. So, I went there and, ah about the time I got out of service she graduated and so, we lived there several months and then, after they passed the GI Bill, because of the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition, I was able to go to, move back to Iowa and then go to school there.
CA: Okay.
LM: And, ah, it was much cheaper.
CA: Yeah.
LM: I think I got through four years of college—and I was looking this up the other day—and I don’t believe that I spent over six or seven thousand dollars for four years of education.
CA: That’s very rare.
LM: You know from―because tuition was like fifty dollars a quarter and then you had to buy the books, so it was very inexpensive in those days. And at that time the school I went to there was 9,000 students and today there’s about 35,000.
CA: Wow. What school was it?
LM: Iowa State University.
CA: Iowa State. Okay.
LM: It was like Auburn; it was a, a land grant college.
CA: Um-hm.
LM: Engineering and agriculture and so forth, you know.
CA: Yeah.
LM: Veterinary.
CA: Wow. So you, ah, you married before you were out of the service and then you—
LM: About six months.
CA: About six months.
LM: Yeah.
CA: Okay.
LM: Um-hm.
CA: Okay.
Rhonda Haygood: What was your, what was the hardest part of being in the service at that time?
LM: From my point of view, I can’t really say that there was a hard part because I wasn’t under any, ah, stress as far as being in the front— on the front or anything like that. I really can’t say if there was a hard part, ah, we were young and it, it, once I went to Bermuda there was a lot of things to do there, because it was a tourist place and um, I, I just can’t say that there was a hard part.
RH: Well, that’s good.
CA: Yeah, it is, yeah, yeah.
LM: I was doing okay.
CA: Did you have a, a, an opinion about Harry Truman? I know we mentioned he was president at this time.
LM: No, but I’ve got a great respect for that man and, ah, he knew what it was all about, because he’d been an artillery officer in World War I, and so he, ah, the decisions that he made after Roosevelt died and for his respect for the atomic bomb and so forth, I think they were, he made the right kinds of decisions.
CA: Um-hm.
LM: He could identify with those days.
CA: Um-hm.
LM: And from World War I, you know.
CA: Yeah. Yeah.
LM: As I was looking through some of this material, this folder I usually take to my, with me when I go to the schools. [Mr. Makinson is referring to a folder containing pictures and documents he takes with him when he goes to talk with student about the Korean War]. I saw one in here. I, I’ve got this photo here of a bunch of women and, and I guess these are all nurses. They’re really good-looking girls aren’t they? But, ah, a interesting story behind that. That, that, they’re standing in front of the hospital where I was born and one of those nurses there, in the, in the front row is, was my great-aunt, my mother’s sister, or, my mother’s aunt. And, ah, at that hospital was also the chief surg—my mo—my great aunt was the chief surgical nurse and the, and the chief surgeon was a man who had been in the Spanish-American War in the Philippines and he’d been a surgeon there and he recognized the need for front line medical service, you know. And so, ah, what happened was that when World War I started he decided that he would put together a unit and they would go to France and be the medical service for, for the American Army. And so, they formed what they call Mobile Hospital No. 1, which became the first MASH unit, like they had in World War II and in World War I, there were twenty-two women that received the French Croix de guerre, medal of bravery and honor and there was five of them from this unit right here and one of them was my great-aunt, I think that’s her right there [Mr. Makinson indicates a woman in the photo]. She was still a spinster and she was probably forty years old at the time, because she lived to be ninety-three, but, ah, they were awarded the Croix de guerre, one of the twenty-two women of all nations that were given it in World War I, and in her letters that I have she talks about that they had treated 26,000 wounded in one hospital in six weeks.
CA: My goodness.
LM: And described the horrors of the First World War, you know, before we had antibiotics and things like that.
CA: Um-hm.
LM: And, ah, and they called it Unit K and they became Mobile Hospital No. 1 and that’s interesting because the man that gave her the, the medal was a guy by the name of Marshall Pétain. If you know anything about World War I, Marshall Pétain was the, was the head man at the end of the war, was a Marshall of France, over all the generals and he gave that to, that medal to my, ah, my great aunt. But during World War II, Marshall Pétain was still around and when the Nazis took over France in World War II, he became their quisling or their man that they dealt with and he in, in effect was helping the Nazis run France at the World, in World War II.
CA: Wow. My goodness.
LM: So, ―
CA: That’s a really neat story. I’m glad that you have that picture.